Could anybody explain the correlation between the slow breathing used in practicing MCFB, and the need to take fast, quantitative breaths? By practicing slow breathing, is this supposed to help when one needs to take a very fast breath? Especially when playing in the upper register, it seems like being able to suddenly relax is essential to taking in air. Are MCFB meant to address this?

One of the strengths of Carmine's approach is that it can be applied to considerations other than those for which it is most commonly used.

You might think of this as a 3 step procedure.

1-Analzye

2-Practice

3-Internalize

For example, you ask how Carmine’s long, slow nose breaths relate to the practical necessities of playing. They don’t, really, except perhaps to serve as a continuing lesson in what it feels like to have a good lungful of air w/out suffering undue tension while acquiring it.

BUT… analysis and timing ideas that Carmine used can be applied to this problem just as well as they are most commonly applied to problems of embouchure, balance and connection.

Analyze

OK…you feel that you need to be able to take "fast, quantitative breaths". Which ones? (This is a serious question.) When I play tuba in march situations (Sousa and so on) I use quick sniff breaths through the nose to keep my air supply going. This serves to replenish my air on a regular enough basis that I neither pass out from too much CO2 nor hyperventilate, while not forcing me to move my embouchure every few bars to get a quick breath through the corners or worse yet, stop the contact of the m’pce w/my chops and have to continually re-establish it.

Is this the quick breath you want to use? Probably not…I’m guessing you’re a trumpet player and very rarely have to be either an "oom" or a "pah" for extended periods of time. (Although this is a very useful technique to learn on any instrument.)

So…what are the other alternatives? There are three, I think. You can breathe through the mouthpiece itself, breathe through one or both corners, or take the m’pce off your chops and take in air, then replace it and play.

The first one is for emergencies only, both because the m’pce limits how much air you can get and also because what air you are getting has relatively less oxygen in it.

The second one has the advantage of not disturbing your basic embouchure setting, the disadvantages of limiting the amount of air you can take in to some degree and also making you relax and then re-contract your corners.

The third one allows greater air intake per second, allows you to keep your corners firm, but necessitates replacing the m’pce accurately.

Name your poison. Your choice. I’ve seen great players use all three.

(We’re still at the analysis part here…)

Let’s say you have chosen one method of breathing. Now you have to construct exercises that simulate in a very simple manner the playing circumstances in which you feel you must take these quick breaths. Could be legato playing, could be playing pads of some sort, could be sneaking breaths in long scalar or arpeggiated lines…whatever. Let’s say it’s legato playing.

OK…construct an exercise that simulates this. Let’s say middle G->A->B->G in quarter notes (4/4) followed by an A whole note, then diatonically up using the same pattern in the key of G, using the shortest possible amount of time at the end of every second bar to get enough air to continue the phrase.

Now we’re into the practicing part.

Start playing this exercise VERY SLOWLY, while tapping your foot in good time and subdividing in 16th notes. Say MM=30 beats per minute. (Even slower if your time and air are good enough.) Breathe the way you have decided to breathe, trying to leave as little time to breathe at the end of each second bar as you possibly can, and simply do this exercise in good time. (Start tapping your foot before you start the exercise.)

Maybe do it a few times each practice session. Speed it up; slow it down; invert it; play it in different time signatures; subdivide it in 8th note or 16th note triplets instead of 16th notes; retrograde it; transpose it; start in other registers; create other similar exercises; take phrases where you have been having trouble getting good quick breaths and practice them the same way; create exercises out of those phrases; invert, retrograde, speed up/slow down or transpose THEM. Etc. etc. etc. etc.

Three weeks (months, days, years…???) later…

You’re playing music and taking quick accurate breaths W/OUT THINKING ABOUT THEM.

Voila…you have succeeded in internalizing this action.

This is the essence of what Carmine was teaching, I believe.

What he was really doing was providing a method KIT, a way to make your own "methods", a do-it-yourself way to learn whatever it is you want to learn.

Thanks for posting Sam. When you said, "...you ask how Carmine's long, slow breaths relate to the necessities of playing. They don't, except perhaps to serve as a continuing lesson in what it feels like to have a good lungful of air WITHOUT SUFFERING UNDUE TENSION WHILE AQUIRING IT.

That's certainly something I know a thing or two about, playing with too much tension in my chest! Although while practicing the excersises, I don't experience this tension. I ended up injuring myself by tearing tendons in my chest by playing years ago, so I am always prone to feeling tension there, although this doesn't alwyas happen. Loud, hard playing seems to exacerbate it. It's funny, because while practicing at home, I feel either very little, or no tension. I also don't practice very loudly. But at work, it will happen more often.

I'll continue to practice MCFB, since they do help, that is for sure. I am starting to think that trumpet players have become convinced that they need to take in huge quantities of air all of the time. This in itself can cause problems, especially if it is done while under tension. It is amazing that while playing, if you feel that you need a breath and have almost no time to do it, that just the slightest sip of air will keep you going for a number of bars. Perhaps huge breaths aren't always necessary?

Try something. Hold a Kleenex tissue a couple of inches in front of your mouth and buzz an easy note at an MF volume. Note the movement of the tissue (or lack thereof). Now keep the same feel/tension (this isn't nuclear physics, just keep an approximately similar feel) in your lips and respiratory muscles and just let the air blow through the lips and notice the movement of the tissue. If buzzing is a problem use the mouthpiece. The results will be the same. ( Go back and forth between vibrating and just blowing the air and observe the results in the movement of the tissue)

Same air support and same basic aperture but where did all the air come from??!!

This should tell you something about how much air you need to play the trumpet.